Saints are Hidden in Plain Sight

April 7, 2016 November 9, 2017

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Saints are Hidden in Plain Sight

From the Realities of Mawlana Shaykh Hisham as Taught by Shaykh As Sayed Nurjan Mirahmadi

A’udhu Billahi Minash Shaitanir Rajeem
Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem

Pious people whom we call Awliyaullah and saints are hidden and you listen to the big Awliya say that they are hidden. There is a reality in that understanding that they are hidden in plain sight. That Awliyaullah (saints) are not hiding, there is nowhere to hide; the saints are not hiding, the pious are not hiding. They have to be amongst people to serve people. What they are saying politely is that people have lost the ears that hear and eyes that see and a heart that feels.

We are Born in Purity

Allah (‘Azza wa Jal ) describes in the 45^th Surah of Holy Qur’an that, the sins of people, the sins of Mankind (are the reason that) Allah (‘Azza wa jal) begins to veil their hearing, because we are born on purity.

45:23 – ” Afara ayta manit takhadha ilaha hu hawahu wa adallahu Allahu ‘ala ‘Ilmin wa khatama ‘ala sam’ihi wa qalbihi, wa ja’ala ‘ala basarihi ghishawatan faman yahdeehi min ba’di Allahi, afala tadhakkaron.” Surat al Jathiyah

“Have you seen he who has taken as his god his [own] desire, and Allah has sent him astray due to knowledge and has set a seal upon his hearing and his heart and put over his vision a veil? So who will guide him after Allah (has withdrawn Guidance)? Then will you not be reminded?” (Holy Quran, 45:23)

We are born on complete submission and complete reliance on the Divinely Presence and reliance upon whomever Allah (‘Azza wa Jal) puts us under, in their custody.

A child is like a wali, a saint, if that child screams the whole room will move; they (Awliya) feel it from a distance and they know they have to do something. With no language they are able to control people; “O I think he is hungry, I think something is wrong, maybe he is not feeling good” through just sound because of the purity of their heart. They are coming from Paradise Oceans onto this Earth.

Sins Block Our Senses – Hearing

Means this secret is in plain sight and it’s hidden from Mankind. And if the sins become many it distances us from that reality. Allah (‘Azza wa Jal), the Divinely Presence wants to give us all of these realities and all of these blessings. But our sins begin to close the hearing, where we have ears but we don’t hear, we don’t hear the call and what God wants from us; we don’t hear our higher conscience and no way we hear the lower conscience. It means all of it becomes sealed and begins to make the servant to move farther away.

Sins Veil The Vision and the Heart

If the hearing begins to close, then Allah (‘Azza wa Jal) describes: We seal their sight. Because when the bricks begin to cover the ear, the eyes begin to be veiled. And the veils become thicker and thicker , where the servant does not hear and definitely spiritually does not see, and now there is like a blanket being put upon the heart of that believer so that no light gets in and no light goes out.

What they want to say politely in the Last Days is that people have relied so much on technologies but not on themselves. They have built a life based on bad characteristics and not on good characteristics and they became veiled. With that veiling they do not understand who pious people are. They can pass them in an instant and not understand anything and there we go with Mawlana’s description that: they are hidden! No, they are hidden in plain sight; their centers are everywhere, their personalities are amongst people but it requires ears that hear. It means the ear that hears the `amr of Allah (‘Azza wa Jal), the order of the Divinely Presence and is continuously in a state of `itibah, obedience.

Come to Shaykhs to Open the Hearing and be Obedient

Why we come to the Shaykhs and to the teachers is to open the ears. Because you can’t open obedience without trying to obey, and you can’t obey yourself because it is the self that is making the problem. By finding somebody that we can rely on, somebody that we believe in, somebody that shows the signs of good character, then I take a life with them of ‘itibah, of trying to submit, trying to open my hearing.

The first step is sami’na wa `ata’na and this is only relevant to good and holy actions; this is not relevant to bad or dirty things or evil and wicked things.

سَمِعْنَا وَأَطَعْنَا غُفْرَانَكَ رَبَّنَا وَاِلَيْكَ الْمَصِيْرُ

2:285 – “…Sam’ina wa ata’na, ghufranaka Rabbana wa ilaykal masir.” (Surat al Baqarah)

“…We hear, and we obey: (We seek) Thy forgiveness, our Lord, and to Thee is the end of all journeys.” (Holy Quran, 2:285)

This is an assumption that we are all on the path of goodness, nobody tells you to listen and go steal cheese. Some guy came to me, “O Shaykh I am going to make a big jihad, I am going to steal cheese.” I said, “Why do you want to steal cheese?” What kind of character is that? We don’t steal anything. This is all on the assumption of good characteristics. It means to follow the good advice, follow the upper hand.

If you don’t Achieve your Rank in Dunya, You won’t get it in Akhirah

Struggling against the self is to open that reality so that we are not heedless in this world. Allah (‘Azza wa Jal) describes that if you are blind in this world you will be blind in the Hereafter.

وَمَن كَانَ فِي هَـٰذِهِ أَعْمَىٰ فَهُوَ فِي الْآخِرَ‌ةِ أَعْمَىٰ وَأَضَلُّ سَبِيلًا ٧٢
17:72 “Wa man kana fee hadhihi a’ma fahuwa fee al akhirati a’ma wa adallu sabeela.” (Surat Al Isra)

“But those who were blind in this world, will be blind in the hereafter, and most astray from the Path.” (The Night Journey 17:72)

You don’t achieve the rank that God had wanted for us. There is no more rank to be given in Heavens if we don’t achieve it in this material world because in Heavens you see everything. You see and say, “Well that is fantastic, I am going all the way to the front.” No, you are kind of stuck where you are. The growth is in the material world and the material world is a means in which to accomplish what God wants for us in our Paradise destination. (Allah says) I want for you front row to see all the action and to participate and to eat from their table. Then it requires that in this material world to train the hearing. Because this is what Allah (‘Azza wa Jal) describes that, “The sinners based on their sin, I seal their hearing, I seal their eyes and I put a blanket, a khiswah over their heart veiling them.”

That is sad because no light will go in and no light will come out. They say, “O our hearts are ghulf, our hearts are locked.”

2:88 – “Wa qaloo qulobuna ghulfun. Bal la’anahumu Allahu bikufrihim faqaleelan ma yuminoon.” (Surat al Baqarah)

“And they said, “Our hearts are wrapped/Locked.” But, [in fact], Allah has cursed them for their disbelief, so little is it that they believe” (Holy Quran)

Yes it is correct, their heart is locked because there is a khiswah, a blanket over their heart. Then pious people come into our lives and say, “No, this truth is in plain sight. Why is it that you can’t see it and you are oblivious to every falsehood?”

First Step is to Come and Listen to Awliya

The first step they begin to teach you, “Come and listen,” come and accompany them.

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّـهَ وَكُونُوا مَعَ الصَّادِقِينَ ١١٩
9:119 – Ya ayyuhal ladheena amanoo ittaqollaha wa kono ma’as sadiqeen.
(Surat at Tawba)
O you who have believed, fear Allah and be with those who are true.
(The Repentance 9:119)

By accompanying them and listening, listening with no opinion of your own because they don’t care for your opinion. It sounds rude, but it is very true. It is your opinion that got you in the problem in the first place because the opinion is coming from the nafs (ego), you are not yet talking from your soul.

We were talking about this downstairs, because this goes into the example: there was extreme real Sufism and now there is goofy Sufi. This reality is from Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama’at, it has nothing to do with this word ‘Sufism’. This was the way of training towards realities for Allah (‘Azza wa Jal’s) Divinely Presence. It was a reality with no name, now it is a name with no reality!

Don’t Refuse to Eat from the Paradise Table

Grandshaykh Daghestani’s Test – Serving Lamb

Real and extreme where Shaykh Daghestani had a piece of lamb and invited Mawlana Shaykh Hisham, Shaykh Adnan, Sultanul Awliya Mawlana Shaykh Nazim, to come and eat. This is one example that Mawlana Shaykh gave many times. This lamb was put on the table and when they looked at the lamb there were maggots all over and he said, “Bismillah, start eating.” You are at the table of a very pious person, without a thought they said, “Bismillah,” and they put their hand in and the maggots were coming around the meat. Then they put it into their mouths and they said, “As soon as we put it into our mouths the illusion was gone.” That was some meat from Paradise, but at that time there was a permission from the Divinely Presence to make their eyes an illusion. And what they saw with their eyes was an illusion of that meat with all sorts of things on it.

Today’s test – Giving Candy to Children

At that time they were teaching that you take that ni`mat (blessing), you don’t see it and it’s not for you to see it, to judge it, to understand it, that is not your station. Your station was merely to eat it. And the character was so pure and so trusting and so in taslim (submission) that nothing twice, let me go and eat. Bismillah, this is what my shaykh wants me to eat, Bismillahir Rahamanir Raheem put it in your mouth. They said, “This was food from Paradise.”

The same shaykhs inspire that do that now but make it so easy that it is like a kindergarten version of that. You say, “Come and take this ni`mat (blessing) and give these candies to these children.” Then their parents come and say, “No, he doesn’t eat candy right now, I don’t eat candy shaykh, thank you very much.” One group of shaykhs were eating meat with maggots on it, they visually saw it as maggots. Because this is a table from Paradise and this is a table that Sayyidina `Isa (alayhi ‘salaam) was asking for, and he is always present with Sayyidina Muhammad (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam). You say: eat from that, “No, no, I won’t.” Take from that rice, “No, no, shaykh I don’t use that rice.” Use this salt, “I don’t use this salt.”

Be Careful How you Talk in front of your Shaykh

Then you see that you are your worst enemy. You are the only one that is able to destroy every type of blessing that comes to you. You don’t need any outside attack; already you within yourself, and we within ourselves, are already under attack. And no blessing can come to us and no blessing can reach us because everything we are trying to analyse and put our opinion in every dialogue and every conversation.

Some people say, “Shaykh I want to have a closer relationship and spend more time with you,” so that you can burn yourself in hell? Because every time you spend time with them you talk more, you talk more, you argue about everything and you are getting a ticket into difficulty. That (talk and argument) doesn’t get you a ticket into Paradise.

In Ka’bah you are not allowed to make a sin, it is magnified by one million and if you pray good it is magnified by one million. Haramain means no haram. What about the walking Ka`bahs? and the walking Madinahs? that they carry the light of Allah (‘Azza wa Jal) in their heart? Qalbu mu’min baytullah and they carry the love of Sayyidina Muhammad (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) and the Ahlul Muhabbat,

“Qalb al mu’min baytur rabb.”
“The heart of the believer is the House of the Lord.” Hadith Qudsi

It means there is no way to do gunnah (sin) in their presence and to argue with them or dispute with them. That is the Tariqa now that we have become so veiled in our understanding and in our sight and in our ears. Everything becomes such a material vision that all of these ni’mats and all of these secrets become so far from us.

Why Don’t We See the Barakah (Blessings) and Manifestations?

We said before that there are so many Masajid in this community. How many people must be praying all the time to Allah (‘Azza wa Jal) “O my Lord, save me, O my Lord answer my prayers, O my Lord send me some relief, O my Lord send me, send me, send me,” all of that. And if they walk by this street they wouldn’t come in and Allah’s ni’mat is right there, Allah’s barakah is right there, Allah’s intercession is right there, Allah’s love of Sayyidina Muhammad (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) is right there. But they don’t have the ears to hear what their inner soul is telling them: “go in!” And they don’t have the eyes to see that when they enter in, with the eye of their heart and with khushiya, with softness in their heart, to say, “O my God, there must be something here. There are so many lights and so many tajallis (manifestations).”

How much praising upon Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) takes place here? How much praising upon Allah (Azz wa Jal) takes place here? One peanut can save you from jahannum of what it has been dressed with Malayikah, with angels. That everything upon it has angels that deliver its ni’mat, that deliver its blessings to your body. The foods have angels upon it, those angels bring these barakahs (blessings) into our lives. Imagine the angels that are continuously under zikrullah and continuously under Mawlid an-Nabi (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam). Everything they say with no ego, “Ameen, ameen ameen,” it is Noorun `ala Noor, more light upon light upon light and that is unimaginable blessing. But it requires eyes to see.

“Shaykh I can get this $5 less at Costco.” That is not the people of faith. Means then it is a testing, an imtihan (test) for us that: Oh, everyone began to know themselves by themselves with their interaction with the shaykh. How you talk with the teacher? How you interact, and react around the centre? He tells you help out in the center and you don’t help out but you sit down on the couch. You have not ears to hear and definitely have no eyes to see. All you see are the jinn that play with you.

Musa (as) Teaches – You Must Completely Listen to your Guide

There is no way, impossible, that all our training was that you completely listen and listen through ridicule and humiliation. And that is what Allah (‘Azza wa Jal) established through Holy Qur’an with Sayyidina Musa (alayhi ‘s-salaam). Allah is describing, “With the one who talks to My Divinely Presence, he has to humble himself and lose his rank.” (They) say we don’t care if you talk to Allah, when you sit here you listen, and you are not going to have patience with something that your knowledge is not complete.

18:67-68 – “Qala innaka lan tastatee’a ma’iya sabra. (67) Wa kayfa tasbiru ‘ala ma lam tuhit bihi khubra.(68)” (Surat alKahf)

(Khidr (as) said, “Verily you will not be able to have patience with me! (67) And how can you have patience about things which your understanding is not complete?” (The Cave 18:67-68)

That was the warning to kalimullah who speaks to Allah (‘Azza wa Jal). Well, we have no chance if that is the case. If the one who speaks to Allah (‘Azza wa Jal) had a difficult time, the one who doesn’t speak to Allah (‘Azza wa Jal) and speaks only to himself is definitely in big difficulty.

The Cave of Prophet (saws) -Jamadil Awwal – 5^th Lunar Month 5X9=45

Means they begin to establish the reality because last month (Jamadil Awwal – 5^th Lunar Month) was the secret of the Cave of Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam). Within that Cave of Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) Allah (‘Azza wa Jal) is describing in the 45^th Surah that, “We gave you the mulk of dunya and all samawat wal Ard is in your hands,

45:13 – “Wa sakhkhara lakum ma fis Samawati wa ma fil Ardi jamee’an minhu, inna fee dhalika la ayatin liqawmin yatafakkaron.” (Surat al Jathiya)

“And He has subjected to you [Muhammad (saws)], as from Him, all that is in the heavens and on earth: Behold, in that are Signs indeed for those who reflect [Contemplate/Meditate].” ( Holy Quran, The Crouching, 45:13)

It means all of it is under your command.” All of that reality and all of its dress we are asking to reach towards those understandings. Then Allah (‘Azza wa Jal) says it’s very simple: if you want those dressings and blessings and you want to be gifted these realities from Prophet (sallalahu alayhi wa sallam), open your ears, listen and seal your mouth and take a path of silence.

Open the Ears:
Take Path of Silence – Seal Your Mouth & Listen

Why to open your ears and seal your mouth? because Sayyidina Abu Bakr as-Siddiq put a rock for seven years in his mouth. This is the Naqshbandi Way, we are taking from Sayyidina Abu Bakr as-Siddiq. That what is going to come from the mouth is going to block the ears so put the rock in your mouth and open your ears.

When you open your ears you take a path of listening, listening, listening for spiritual guidance, listening to struggle against yourself, listening to all your whispering. Trying your best to fulfill what you heard. “Clean up,” okay. “Do this,” okay. “Do like that,” okay, inshaAllah, inshaAllah, inshaAllah. Constantly coming against yourself so that you feel the agitation, but you have a rock in your mouth so that you don’t express anything. Because as soon as you express it, you lost that test and you have to start again from page one. Because what is being expressed is not from the soul and what is trying to identify itself is the bad ego. Especially the self that keeps saying, “I am going to leave, I am going to leave.” If you are going to leave, go! Because you are wasting the time of everybody here. They are not going to give you any secrets if you keep saying, “I am going to leave, how about if I go there, how about…” if you want to leave, go.

This is sami’na wa ata’na, and mawt qablal mawt. Yaa Rabbi I am not going until I reach where the two rivers meet and it will take me a lifetime to reach it.

18:60 “Wa idh qala Mosa lefatahu laa abrahu hatta ablugha majma’a albahrayni aw amdiya huquba.” (Surat al Kahf)

“Behold, Moses said to his attendant, “I will not give up until I reach the junction of the two seas or (until) I spend years and years in travel.” (Holy Quran, The Cave 18:60)

Open the Eyes of Your Heart

Then they teach how to open the ears, open the ears, open the ears. When the ears open, then open your eyes. Open your eyes, mean not the physical eyes but open the eyes of your heart. Your physical eyes are already seeing it. It can’t be the physical eyes, we are all seeing the same things. Those things that we see with our eyes, it is all but an illusion and there is a great magic show happening on this Earth. And if you are only looking through your physical eyes you are lost in the magic show. As soon as you begin to open the eyes of your heart when you meditate and contemplate because you have been listening and listening and struggling against yourself and your opinion hasn’t been coming out, then you begin to make tafakkur.

Open the Eyes through Tafakkur (Contemplation)

That is real tafakkur, real contemplation, and all those ayats of Qur’an when you Google ‘tafakkur’ that how much Allah (‘Azza wa Jal) describes reality, but is only known by the people of tafakkur.

3:190-191 – “Inna fee khalqis Samawati wal ardi wakhtilafil layli wan nahari, la ayatin li Olel albab. (190) Alladheena yadhkurona Allaha qiyaman wa qu’odan wa ‘ala junobihim, wa yatafakkarona fee khalqis Samawati wal ardi, Rabbana ma khalaqta hadha batilan subhanaka faqina ‘adhaban nar.(191)” (Surat Ali ‘Imran)

“Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and the day are signs for those People of understanding (People of the Door of Knowledge). (190) Who remember Allah while standing or sitting or [lying] on their sides and Contemplate the creation in the heavens and the earth, [saying], “Our Lord, You did not create this aimlessly; exalted are You [above such a thing]; then protect us from the punishment of the Fire (Holy Quran 3:190-191)

45:13 – “Wa sakhkhara lakum ma fis Samawati wa ma fil Ardi jamee’an minhu, inna fee dhalika la ayatin liqawmin yatafakkaron.” (Surat al Jathiya)

“And He has subjected to you [Muhammad (saws)], as from Him, all that is in the heavens and on earth: Behold, in that are Signs indeed for those who reflect [Contemplate/Meditate].” ( Holy Quran, The Crouching, 45:13)

Means when Allah wants to open these realities it is only through the people of contemplation, but they achieved the station of sami’na, we heard and we are trying our best in life to listen. sami’na wa ata’na, I heard and I am trying my best to obey, I heard and I am trying my best to obey.

2:285 – “…Sam’ina wa ata’na, …” (Surat al Baqarah)
“…We hear, and we obey…” (Holy Quran, 2:285)

Then they take tafakkur (contemplate), where we described before, they make a room in their house like their grave. They darken the room, put a candle for their reading and begin to contemplate. And play Qur’an and salawat so that angelic sound is always resonating within themselves and around them. They begin to contemplate that, “My eyes have partaken in this illusion my Lord. Open the eyes of my soul, open the eyes of my heart so that I can see through my soul.”

Then Allah (‘Azza wa Jal) begins to unveil those eyes. If that unveiling is occurring means then Allah (‘Azza wa Jal) begins to lift this khiswah (Shaykh lifts a cloth that was covering something), this veil has to be lifted. When they begin to life this khiswah (veil) from the heart, then that heart is receiving lights and that heart is giving lights. That soul is operating by blocking the hearing and listening to the hearing;

39:18 – “Alladhina yastame’onal qawla fayattabe’ona aHsanahu, Olaayeka alladhina Hadahumullahu, wa Olaayeka hum Olul Albab.” (Surat Az Zumar)
“Who listen to speech and follow the best of it. Those are the ones Allah has guided, and those are people of understanding [People of the Door].” ( The Troops 39:18)

Blocking the hearing of itself and its nafs, its ego. And listening to guidance, Meditating and contemplating to have their spiritual accuracy. Then it begins to balance itself.

Don’t be Lost in Visions – Could be Illusions from Jinn

If you try to open the eyes of your heart without following a guide a jinn is going to come into the room and begin to play with you. And begin to give you illusions, visions and all sorts of grandeur, “This is coming to you, and that is coming to you”. They begin to train you that you divorce yourself from whatever you saw. Whatever you see in your spiritual vision the only thing that is important is ilaahi anta maqsudi wa ridaka matloobi, “I am begging Your forgiveness yaa Rabbi and seeking Your satisfaction.”

“Illahi anta maqsodi, wa Ridaka Matlobi.”
“My God, You are my aim, and Your Satisfaction is what I seek.”

They come to you in a vision when you are sitting and meditating and say, “O here is a divine jubba (cloak) from the Divinely Presence.” You are ahmaq (stupid), and no-brain person, if you really think you got a jubba and you are going to walk around (thinking), “O, I just got a spiritual dress, I am such an important person.” Negate it!

How many Awliya Allah (saints) came, when you read all of these books, and said, “Don’t be lost in that station.” These are stations of beatific vision, many things may come to you. Negate them, not that you become rude, but say, “Yaa Rabbi alhamdulillah wa shukrulillah but I know myself, I am nothing yaa Rabbi, I am nothing. Ana abduka aajiz wa daeef, I am weak yaa Rabbi just (want) Your rida and satisfaction, Your oceans of Power and Light. Dress me from Your Grace.” O, now you got this, now you got that, say, “Thank you very much,” and put it aside. Until I reach my destination what are those going to do for me?

It means you would be trained even in what you see and how to see through the heart and how to keep listening. Come to their guidance and negate what you are seeing through your eyes, but open your eyes, open the heart. And you begin to see all the falsehood of the material world, all the magic show that is taking place and people are oblivious to it and they are falling into it.

Then the veil of the heart becomes lifted and the person begins to sense and to feel. When those pious people who opened their ability can sense, and hear and they can feel, they know where those Awliya are. They know when they have entered into the presence of a Wali, because they feel the light of Sayyidina Muhammad (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) emanating from around them. They feel the ruhaniyat of Sayyidina Muhammad (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam), they feel that presence.

We pray that Allah (‘Azza wa Jal) opens for us more and more as we are entering into the holy month of Rajab, the holy month of Shaban and the holy month of Ramadan inshaAllah. That Mawlana Shaykh dress us from his light and perfect our lights and perfect our character and present us to the presence of Sayyidina Muhammad (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam). And that Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) to be happy with us and present us to the Divinely Presence.

Subhaana rabbika rabbil izzati `amma yasifoon wa salaamun `alal mursaleen wal hamdulillahi rabbil `aalameen. Bi hurmati Muhammad al-Mustafa wa bi sirri surat al-Fatiha.

[Special thanks to Sister Hafsa and Sister Saira for transcribing this Suhbah]

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